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Bring on the the Mac & Cheese Showdown! -STEPHANIE DAVIS \/ FLORIDA WEEKLY<\/p>\n
If there\u2019s one e-mail\/text\/Facebook message that I frequently receive from both friends and dear readers, it usually goes like this, \u201cI enjoyed your column about the Mac & Cheese Showdown in downtown Fort Myers, but now it\u2019s over \u2014 I didn\u2019t even know it was happening and I love macaroni and cheese. I\u2019m so sad.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Well, guess what dear reader? You can turn that frown upside down and mark your calendar for Saturday, June 27, beginning at noon downtown at Millennial Brewing Company, where the Mac & Cheese Showdown will be happening \u2014 I, too, love macaroni and cheese, so is it a coincidence that the event is happening on my birthday? Maybe\u2026 maybe not.\n<\/p>\n
The Mac & Cheese Showdown is just one example \u2014 but it happens a lot \u2014 sometimes when I write about an event, too many people tell me that they would have gone had they known it was happening. Gone are the days when event planners sent out paper invitations or even flyers through the mail. Honestly, it\u2019s just too expensive, and during a time when we\u2019re all counting our pennies (do we even use pennies anymore?), printing out invites and putting them through the postal service is costly. These days, we have to be more creative when it comes to finding out about fun stuff to do.\n<\/p>\n
Shameless plug for Florida Weekly \u2014 we have an awesome calendar section. Other ways to be in the know are to check Facebook events \u2014 it\u2019s a free way to advertise, and it\u2019s what most planners use. E-mail invites are another cost-effective way to let folks know about upcoming events \u2014 but be sure to check your spam. I\u2019ve even gotten generic text invites. So, boomers and Gen X\u2019ers, just know that you\u2019re not going to receive a hand-written invitation \u2014 if you want to find fun, you\u2019ll need to look for it. Or, you can just check out my picks for June:\n<\/p>\n
Friday, June 12 kicks off three weekends of Grouper Fest at Fort Myers Brewing Company in Gateway \u2014 that means lots of live music, food trucks, and plenty of fan-favorite Mosaic Grouper beer! Stephanie Davis. -FLORIDA WEEKLY<\/p>\n Summer is certainly the time for festivals and one of the most popular ones in Southwest Florida is MangoMania on beautiful Pine Island. The mango juice flows on Saturday, July 11, beginning at 9 a.m. at the Winn Dixie Shopping Plaza on Stringfellow Road. Enjoy food competitions (mango recipes, of course), live music, arts and crafts, and more.<\/p>\n On Friday, June 19, Babcock Ranch celebrates Dads from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. \u2014 it\u2019s a Bucket Golf Bash in Founder\u2019s Square and includes friendly competitions \u2014 including a Hole-In-One Challenge and even a Stein Holding Contest. I\u2019m definitely taking my husband to that one.<\/p>\n Happy Summer, the season that\u2019s not a season, but there\u2019s still lots happening. I\u2019ll see you out there!\n<\/p>\n Stephanie Davis is a recovering girl-about-town formerly known as the Downtown Diva. A nearly native Southwest Floridian, when she\u2019s not photographing events for Florida Weekly, she\u2019s perfectly content to stay at home binging Netflix with husband, Todd, and four cats Tennessee, Lilibet, Jack, and Baby.\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bring on the the Mac & Cheese Showdown! -STEPHANIE DAVIS \/ FLORIDA WEEKLY If there\u2019s one e-mail\/text\/Facebook message…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-299489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe Southwest Florida Pride Festival will bring some welcome sparkle and rainbows to downtown on June 13 from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. This high-energy fest will happen on First Street in front of the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center. Stay for the late-night adults-only dance party at Sidney\u2019s Rooftop Bar.
\nVisit the Lee County Black History Society website to learn more about all of the Juneteenth celebrations happening locally (org<\/a>), but you\u2019ll definitely want to know about the Juneteenth Celebration Festival at the S.T.A.R.S Complex. Expect fun, stories, and unforgettable moments as freedom and community are celebrated.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Stephanie-Davis-Headshot.jpg\")
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